Union Hotel, assault rifles likely topics for Flemington council

The Union Hotel has been closed since 2008. Its revitalization is a top priority of the mayor and council.

FLEMINGTON — Proposals for the redevelopment of the Union Hotel “will be available for review by the public at Borough Hall not later than Tuesday, Oct. 9,” said Mayor Erica Edwards on Oct. 2.

So it is likely that there will be some discussion of those four proposals at tomorrow’s Borough Council meeting. The meeting was postponed to Oct. 9 because of the Columbus Day holiday today. After a half-hour work session, the meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. in Borough Hall on Court Street.

Although the Union Hotel is not on the agenda, it will probably come up when the mayor and council members make their reports and when the public gets a chance to comment.

Also on the agenda is a hearing and possible final vote on an ordinance that would appropriate $43,750 and authorize the issuance of bonds to raise $41,562.50 to buy trees and to purchase equipment for the Police Department.

The ordinance includes $10,000 for four assault rifles. At the Sept. 10 council meeting, a resident asked why the borough police need those guns, and the mayor and Police Chief George Becker explained they are for an active-shooter situation. The chief said he hopes such an event would never take place in Flemington. But if it did, borough police would be first on the scene and they would have to act. And in that case they would need to be as well armed as the shooter, he said.

At the Sept. 24 meeting, the question came up again and the mayor said a better time to ask it would be at the Oct. 9 meeting when the police chief would be present to answer it.